Mar 15, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Uncategorized
Company intends to use pattern recognition software to evaluate risk of skin cancer
A “do it yourself” dermatopathology service for consumers is coming soon, according to Health Discovery Corporation (HDC) of Savannah, Georgia. The company is preparing to introduce a cell phone-based tool to help consumers recognize whether a mole or other skin lesion needs examination by a dermatologist.
Using their cell phone cameras, consumers would click a photo of the skin lesion, then forward that image to a computer at HDC. Using pattern recognition algorithms developed by the company, called Support Vector Machines, the computer would analyze the image. A report telling the consumer whether the lesion was low, medium or high risk for skin cancer would be sent as a text message. This text message would include a list of dermatologists located near the consumer. The list of dermatologist referrals would be targeted to the user’s geographic area. HPC would compile this list, based on GPS data collected from the cell phone transmission.
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Feb 10, 2010 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Image is 142,603 by 105,000 pixels in size (or 41.8GB) and was scanned at a 1μm pixel resolution
Is it the largest pathology image ever produced? In an article, the journal BioOptics World reports that a breast tissue image may in fact be the largest digital pathology image ever produced. The image was produced by the TISSUEscope 4000 from Biomedical Photometrics Inc. (BPI) of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
The image is available online at http://www.confocal.com/ABOUT/Human_Breast-H&E.html. The announcement of the “largest pathology image ever produced” is a clever way for BPI to call attention to it scanning system. The company describes its product as a high-throughput panoramic scanning system for tissue slides and microarrays that images an area more than 100 times that of an ordinary microscope in a single scan.
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Aug 24, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Upcoming Pathology Visions conference will tackle digital pathology advances
Digital pathology is entering a new phase of adoption marked by three significant trends. This is the assessment of Dirk Soenksen, Founder and CEO of Aperio Technologies, Inc., in Vista, California. He believes these three trends are working together to accelerate the adoption of digital imaging and digital pathology systems by pathology laboratories across the nation.
Soenksen has observed the following three trends in recent months:
- The desire by some pathologists who already use digital pathology in niche settings to expand the use of digital pathology within their laboratories to partial or full adoption.
- A heightened interest by laboratory information system (LIS) vendors to integrate their software with digital image management (pathology PACS) software, as a way to improve their competitive advantage.
- Widespread support for the newly formed Digital Pathology Association (DPA) a not-for-profit group comprising industry and non-industry members, and its mission to focus on education, best practices, and increasing awareness.
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Aug 12, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Use of digital pathology imaging allows both specialists to jointly review cases
In a pioneering effort at The University of Kansas, a radiologist and a pathologist are working side by side to review each other’s primary images and issue an integrated diagnostic report for breast cancer patients. The big surprise from this groundbreaking collaboration is a measurable improvement in diagnostic accuracy, leading to improved patient outcomes.
By reaching across the traditional silos that separate the daily practice of radiology from the daily practice of pathology, these two specialists have demonstrated that the concept of diagnostic integration of in vivo (imaging) and in vitro (pathology) diagnostics can demonstrably improve patient care. In part, this happens because of improved concordance in the reports issued by the radiologist and the pathologist.
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Jul 31, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Aperio Technologies and Applied Spectral Imaging announce new products in July
Two new digital imaging products launched this month show that vendors are advancing the capabilities of digital imaging and digital pathology systems. Each company’s new product announcement touts the value of computer-aided diagnosis and computer pattern recognition for anatomic pathologists.
On July 9, Aperio Technologies, Inc., of Vista, California, launched its Digital IHC Solution for immunohistochemistry that features integrated image analysis for quantification of breast cancer. Aperio says that this is the only commercially available FDA-cleared system that allows pathologists to run quantitative IHC image analysis while reading slides on a computer monitor.
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